Hawaiian Airlines to suspend service to China in October

Hawaiian Airlines will suspend its only route to China after four years of offering the service.

The airline announced the nonstop service between Honolulu and Beijing will end in October, citing low demand, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported .

The service, which launched in 2014, flew three days a week between the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport and the Beijing Capital International Airport.

“These decisions are never easy and this one is especially difficult because we believe in China’s future as a robust market for the Hawaiian vacation experience and we will continue to market one-stop options to Honolulu from cities throughout China on our airline partners,” said Peter Ingram, the airline’s president and CEO.

The company hoped that the number of visitors from China would increase, but growth has been slow, airline spokeswoman Ann Botticelli said.

“When we inaugurated service in April 2014, we were optimistic that China would be an ever-increasing source of visitors to Hawaii,” Botticelli said. “The market has been slower to mature than we anticipated.”

The airline made the initial attempt to begin to service to China in 2005, but the U.S. Department of Transportation rejected its application for the route. The airline then passed on the next two openings for China service in 2007 and 2009.

The airline plans to maintain connections with China in the hopes that service could relaunch.

“Over the past four years, we made significant investments in China, and our team has done an outstanding job positioning our company for future success,” Botticelli said. “We will continue to build brand and destination awareness among Chinese travelers so that we will be ready to seize on this opportunity at the right time.”

The 278-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft that flew the service will be redeployed on a route consistent with the company’s expansion plans, the airline said. AP